The Secret Weapon
by Accidental Cougar
Summary: What it does it take to catch the top Russian spy in the country? A secret weapon.


**The Secret Weapon**

I don't own these characters; I just like to spend time with them. No other profit to be had.

(Set sometime in early Season 1)

**L&AL&AL&AL&AL&AL&AL&AL&A**

"You want me to do what?" Her voice betrayed just how incredulous she was that he would ask.

"You heard me, Amanda." Lee told her. "Look, it's not going to be difficult and it's just perfect for you."

"Right." Amanda said sarcastically as she looked around her, although she knew no one was home but her. The boys were with their friends for the weekend and her mother was spending a week with Aunt Lillian, taking care of her after her gall-bladder surgery. "Shouldn't someone like Francine do it? You know, an experienced agent?"

"Yes, except Francine's not the right type." Lee sighed. And right now, we don't have any other female agents available who would be the right type."

Amanda's ears perked up and her countenance lightened. "Are you saying then, that you consider me an agent?"

"No!" Lee hastily assured her. "No, Amanda. You are still civilian auxiliary but you are also the only one, right now, who could do this for me."

Amanda took a deep breath and looked heavenward. She didn't know why she argued with him over things like this or why she even questioned his decision in asking her to do it. In the end, it'd make no difference. Whatever Lee Stetson asked her to do; she would do it, regardless the task.

"What exactly do you want me to do?" She finally asked.

Lee smiled, knowing eventually she'd give in. She always did. And that was a fact he was both grateful for as well as a little concerned over. For a reason, he couldn't readily identify, Lee worried about Amanda anytime she did anything for the Agency. Even though, he had to admit, she had been extremely helpful more than once and had even saved his tail a time or two, he still worried.

But, as with every other time he'd contacted her for help, he had no choice. Amanda was, right then, the only one available who could help him.

"Grab a pencil, Amanda." Lee told her.

**(*(*(*(*(*(*(*(**)*)*)*)*)*)*)*)**

Amanda walked carefully down the aisles of the grocery store, trying hard not to look conspicuous and feeling all the more like she stuck out like a sore thumb. She knew she was dressed appropriately for her role as a suburban housewife just doing some weekly shopping, because she was exactly that. But she still felt weird.

"Help you find something, Ma'am?" A voice suddenly spoke behind her.

Amanda whirled to find Lee standing there, dressed as a store employee with a polite smile on his handsome face. "Lee!" She hissed.

"I know," he whispered, the smile still in place. "You don't like it when I do that. But I needed to let you know I was here."

Amanda took a wary look around her then glanced back at Lee. "Well, I'm glad for that. I mean, I don't know what I'm really doing here, Lee. You tell me to walk around and give me a list of things to put in my cart and then you just pop up out of nowhere and I…"

"Amanda." Lee briefly reached out and touched her arm to stop her rambling. "I told you. You are here to make contact with another agent. He will know who you are by the items you have in your basket."

"But how will I know who he is?" Amanda asked. "I mean, I don't know these people, this isn't my grocery store. Anybody could be in here and you know, I don't shop well under pressure and…"

"Shop well under pressure?" Lee questioned with a shake of his head.

"You know what I mean." Amanda cut him a quick glare before glancing apprehensively around, yet again.

"Amanda." He whispered, taking his own look around. "You don't need to know who he is. He'll know you, so relax, will ya? Just walk around some more, and finish getting the items on that list. After he makes contact, give him the envelope, push the basket to the side and just leave."

Amanda started to reply when she heard a commotion behind her. Turning, she saw a woman with a little girl coming down the aisle towards her. Quickly, looking back, she started to tell Lee to leave but found she didn't have to, he'd already disappeared. "Oh, that man." She mumbled as she grabbed her cart, studied her list and once again began her shopping.

She had just placed the last item on the list into her cart when a hand clamped down on her arm. Turning, she expected to find Lee beside her. But it wasn't Lee.

Instead, it was a tall man with slicked back, greasy blond hair, a small goatee and a leering smile on his dirty face. "They said it'd be a female." He wiggled his eyebrows at her. "But they didn't say how cute she'd be." He edged closer to her and Amanda's stomach rolled over at the stench.

"You're my contact?" Amanda asked, unable to believe this man could be an agent. His clothes, a pair of jeans, torn tennis shoes and a ripped t-shirt, were filthy and Amanda suspected the filth didn't stop there.

"I'd like to be a whole lot more, Baby." He moved even closer causing Amanda to take two steps backward. She wanted nothing more than to turn and flee but she still had the envelope that needed to be delivered and the man hadn't yet given her the correct code words.

"Uhm," she gasped, trying to breathe through her nose to somewhat mitigate the smell coming from his unwashed body. "It… it's a great day in Washington." She forced a smile and darted a look around, praying Lee would pop up somewhere.

"It is if you like rain." The man replied, his gaze constantly raking over her body.

Amanda had already started reaching in her pocket for the envelope when she stopped. Those weren't the right code words. He was supposed to say, "Only if you're from here."

Amanda froze. This wasn't the right man. He wasn't her contact. But he had to be somebody in the business though. He'd known she was an agent. He'd said so.

"Uh, well, guess it's a good thing I'm not from here." She said as she took more steps backwards, praying she could get away from the ragged man who kept advancing on her. "Well, it's been nice talking to you." She smiled as she whipped her cart around and headed down the next aisle.

But the man wasn't quite so willing to give up. Long legs rapidly followed her as she turned down yet another aisle, looking for Lee or at least the exit. She found neither one.

What she did find was another man, not as tall as the other but better dressed and certainly smelling better. "I, uh, excuse me." Amanda bobbed her head at him as she started to move around him, but he wouldn't let her pass.

Instead, he grabbed the end of her cart and peered down at the contents before looking back up at her. "How do you feel about the weather here in Washington?" He asked pointedly.

Amanda gave him a confused look before realizing this man must be her contact. But if he was, who was the other man? Quickly looking behind her, she realized she must have lost him somewhere around aisle 12. "Uh, it's a great day here in Washington." She replied, swallowing hard.

The man smiled. "Only if you're from here." He watched her intently.

Amanda let out the breath she'd been holding and reached again into her pocket to retrieve the envelope. But no sooner did her hand wrap around it then the first man found her and started down the aisle in her direction.

"Hey, you." He called as he advanced.

The real contact suddenly shrank out of sight and was gone before Amanda could raise her voice in protest. Her only option was to once again try to evade Mr. Raggedy and get out of there. Lee, wherever he was, would have to get someone else to deliver the envelope.

Lee was busy dealing with a customer, who'd noticed his apron and id tag and assumed he was a store employee. A very handsome store employee and she wasn't about to let him get away. This store wasn't known for good looking workers and she planned on enjoying the treat.

Lee tried to be polite, and tell her he was busy. But she ignored that. She also ignored his assertion that he was new and had no idea where anything was and please ask someone else. Neither did she pay attention to the fact that Lee was rapidly backing up and trying to get away from her. She hadn't seen a man as handsome as he was in some time and she wasn't about to let him go.

But then Lee heard a raspy voice calling out and he lost any desire to be polite. Roughly shoving the woman away from him, he took off at top speed around the corner and down two aisles until he found Amanda, backed into a corner with a tall, pitifully dressed man leaning in on her, his hands reaching for her throat.

Lee raced down towards them but had just barely reached their side when Amanda suddenly lifted a leg and kicked as hard as she could. The injury to the man, though not fatal, was instantly debilitating and he sank to the ground with a heavy groan.

Lee quickly bent down and rolled the man over. A look of astonishment crossed his face as he looked first at the man on the ground and then up at Amanda.

"Did I hurt him bad?" Amanda asked, a little sick at her stomach for having to hurt him at all.

Lee chuckled as he looked once again at the man at his feet. "He'll live." He said, as he rolled him over again and quickly cuffed his hands behind his back. "But he's going to walk and talk funny for a while." Lee looked up Amanda again. "Do you know who this is?"

Amanda shook her head and moved further away from the groaning man. "I thought he was my contact, when he first came up, but he didn't have the right code words so of course, he wasn't the real contact but I didn't know who the real contact was, I just knew he wasn't the right one. So I ran away from him. But he kept following me and then I ran into the real contact, or at least he knew the words but then he ran when he saw this man and then I ran again and then he pinned me down here in the corner and I… well, I had to stop him."

Lee shook his head, his grin growing. "This guy's name is Dimitri Kobavitch." Lee told her as he helped the ragged man to his feet. "He's a soviet agent. One of the top Russian agents in this country."

Amanda blanched. "He is? He didn't have an accent or anything."

Lee nodded. "I know. He lost that a long time ago. We've been trying to get our hands on him for years. I guess we forgot to use our secret weapon."

Amanda gave him a confused look. "What secret weapon?"

"You." Lee chuckled. "Come on." He told her as he began to drag the man down the aisle towards the exit. "Billy is never going to believe this."

As it turned out, Lee was wrong, Billy did believe it as he looked with pride as the brunette sitting in front of his desk. "Amanda, I'm proud of you." Billy smiled happily at her. "We've been trying to find Kobavitch for a long time."

Amanda blushed and looked down. "Oh, well, you know, it wasn't really… I mean, I didn't know that he was Kobavitch at the time, I was just trying to stop him from…" She blushed again and stopped. To Amanda it was embarrassing.

"Whatever made him go after Amanda in the first place?" Francine asked as she graced Amanda with a look that said she couldn't believe a top Russian spy would be interested in a suburban housewife.

Lee shrugged. "I asked him that. He said he was given a message to meet one of his Russian counterparts there for an exchange of information. All he knew was that it would be a brown haired female. When he saw Amanda, he thought it was her."

"Well, surely, when I ran from him, didn't he realize it wasn't me?" Amanda asked.

Lee nodded with a chuckle, and an 'I told ya so' look at Francine. "Yeah. But he said you were so cute, he couldn't help himself. He decided to make contact with you before he made contact with anyone else."

"Amanda King, femme fatale." Francine shook her head disbelievingly. "Who would've thought it?"

Lee remained quiet. Something about that thought bothered him, though he couldn't have said why.

Tired of being talked about as though she wasn't there, Amanda stood up. "Sir, is it alright if I go now? I really need to get home."

"Of course, Amanda." Billy nodded graciously. "And, thank you again for all your help."

"Ah, that's alright, Sir." Amanda dipped her head and turned for the door.

"I'll, uh, I'll walk you out to your car, Amanda." Lee spoke up as he quickly stepped over to the door and opened it for her.

After Amanda had walked out, Francine caught Lee's eye and grinned. "Better stick close to your 'secret weapon' there, Lee. Never know who she'll attract next."

Lee smirked as he looked back at her. "I think I will." Lee said as he closed the door.

The end


End file.
